This presentation is targeted for startups and entrepreneurs who are just getting started in Digital and Social Media to promote their business, Mobile App, or service. This presentation has detailed information for the criteria that describe the “how, what, when and why” of the stages needed to help launch your startup efforts. Outline: - Website - Landing Page - Social Media - Ads - Email Domains - Newsletter - Business-to-Business (B2B) - Videos - General Concepts

4. This presentation is targeted for startups and
entrepreneurs who are just getting started in
Digital and Social Media to promote their
business, Mobile App, or service.
This presentation has detailed information for
the criteria that describe the “how, what, when
and why” of the stages needed to help launch
your startup efforts.

5. Website
Landing Page
Social Media
Ads
Email Domains
Newsletter
Business-to-Business (B2B)
Videos
General Concepts

7. Even if your startup is strictly mobile or is
heavily focused on Social Media, you still need
to have a website and an email address
associated with your domain.
It doesn’t have to be complex or require
extensive resources.

8. It is very easy to build a website without
development experience. Don’t spend more
than half-a-day building it (or maybe a bit
more) so that you can spend more time
building your actual product / service and less
time obsessing on the “perfect” website.
The perfect website doesn’t exist and you will
need to regularly update the website content
and look-and-feel to be part of the latest
trends.

9. Examples of online services you can use to
build your website in half-a-day without
development experience ($100 per year or
370 AED per year):
• squarespace.com
• strikingly.com
• wix.com

10. • Landing Pages are an important subset of
the website. (Please refer to the “Landing
Pages” section of this document)
• Common website sections:
–About, Contact Info, Services / Features,
….
–Keep the number of sections to as few
sections as possible

11. Examples of Content
• About:
–More focus on what your product will
do for me as a user
–Less focus on the founders (unless
your product or service is highly
specialized and you need to show that
the founders behind it has the needed
skill set to deliver)

12. Examples of Content
• Services / Features:
–Indicate the PRIMARY features that
your business will solve

13. For example,
You mentioning that the website is optimized
for mobile while your service doesn’t solve
problems when people are accessing their
mobile (for example, finding locations as you
are driving), then there is no added value in
mentioning it is mobile optimized (Make sure
your website is mobile optimized but no need
to list it as a “feature” especially that it has
become an expected feature)

14. • Always have the mindset of the user: “What
is in it for me?” and focus on the PRIMARY
features that address that question. For
example, if voice navigation is one of your
add-on features, that falls under the "Read
More” section of the features and not the
core offerings of the service.

15. Examples of Content
• Contact Us:
–Google Map on your website is not
needed if your service doesn’t have
people physically come to your office
(put a normal office address but no
need for a large map)
–Contact Form to go to an email you
check on a regular basis

16. Examples of Content
• Contact Us:
–Respond quickly
–Phone Number (landline or mobile)
–Social Media channels to be included

17. Examples of Content
• Blog Content:
Industry
What it means to you
Invite guests to participate
Resources for blogging:
• http://problogger.net
• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/39-
blogging-tips/

18. • Don’t sweat the name, yet make sure you
can get a decent domain. Many startups
spend more time on choosing a name (and
then renaming again and again) and less
time on building their product. Choose a
name and URL, and stick with
them. Always have a .com and take
advantage of country specific domains as
well such as UAE’s .ae

19. • The website needs to be Responsive,
allowing it to be easily viewable on different
mobile devices. Most of us access web and
Social Media content from mobile and tablet
devices.
• We can do one-by-one website review with
the different teams

20. • Fun 404 pages to give a glimpse of the
characters of the people behind the team
– This is meant to be a fun exercise for
you and your users. Don’t spend too
much time on this though.

21. – Resources to read more about Fun 404
Pages:
• http://mashable.com/2010/09/04/404-
error-pages/
• http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-
404-error-pages-of-all-time-2013-3
• https://www.google.com/search?site=&tb
m=isch&source=hp&biw=1402&bih=802&
q=funny+404+pages&oq=funny+404+pag
es

23. • Landing Pages do not replace a
website. They are a subset of the website.
• Landing Pages are usually associated with
an ad campaign with a clear Call-to-Action
dedicated pages (sign up, download,
subscribe, learn more, join,…)

24. • Resources to read more about Landing
Pages:
» http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/beautiful-
landing-pages/
» http://www.creativebloq.com/web-
design/landing-page-design-6133358
» http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/landing-
page-examples-list
» http://unbounce.com/landing-page-
examples/36-landing-page-designs-critiqued-

26. • Don’t create channels
across all Social
Media channels that
are available to you
• Be choosy about your
channels depending
on the needs of your
audience

27. • For example,
 if you are a Business-to-Business type of
startup, Facebook is a costly channel for
you to get the results you need. Look
more into LinkedIn for your Business-to-
Business needs.
 if you don’t plan on creating regularly 6-
second video content, then Vine is not the
channel for you

28. • Social Media Content
–Writing for the web is very different from
writing for offline channels. Read more
about the “inverted pyramid” writing
style. In summary, get to the point in the
beginning, then proceed to elaborate
further in the rest of the text body.

29. • Social Media Content
–The general rule for content, is for every
12 updates about others, you earn one
update about yourself. Please make sure
it isn’t the other way around.

30. • Business Function
– Customer Support: A lot of your users will
reach out to you via Social Media to get
answers to their questions and support on
problems they are facing. Make sure you
are ready for that.

31. • Business Function
– Marketing: Communication via Social
Media and running campaigns play a
significant role in raising awareness,
increasing activity,...
– Sales: Sales via Social Media could be
direct sales (purchase) or indirect sales
activity (such as downloads, signups,…)
where the users become part of your
community and you work on a long-term

32. Use Case Scenario: Allows admins to connect with
their audience and keep up with activity on multiple
Pages, all in one place.
General Description: The app allows users to
choose from the list of pages they manage and
begin posting from it. From the main menu, users
can view their lists of pages, view overviews of their
pages’ insights, look at the list of page admins, visit
the help center, and check out the privacy and legal
notices.

33. Additional tools to help you manage your social
media activities from the desktop or while you are on
the move (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Tweetbot,…)
https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/1865409149/iPhone-icon.png
http://blog.onavo.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/06/tweetdeck-logo.png
http://www.beheardmedia.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/03/FourSquare-Logo-Image.png

34. • Make sure you create a Facebook Page for
your business (NOT a personal profile).
• Steps for creating a Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/business/overvie
w

36.  Concept
 Planning
 Targeting
 Setting expectations
in terms of visitor
range, community
size, downloads,...

37.  Budget range to keep in mind: $0.45 to
$1.6 per visitor (1.7 AED to 6AED). On
LinkedIn the minimum costs per click is
even higher at $2
 Difference of budgets due to: different ad
networks (for example, LinkedIn has a
minimum of $2 per click), peak seasons,...
 Optimizing for specific objectives (Mobile
App downloads, user signups, video views,
community growth,…)

40. • It is very important that you
have your @domainname
email for giving a professional
image for your users and
investors. Make sure you
don’t use a general use email
(such as @gmail.com,
@live.com, @yahoo.com as
the public email of your
business.

41. • Choosing a solid email provider is critical so
that you can focus on your
business. Features to look for are effective
SPAM filters, feature-rich capabilities of
email when on the go, and ample storage:

42. Options for you to explore (generally at $5 –
or 19 AED - per user per month):
 Google Apps:
http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/bu
siness/
 Office 365 for Business:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-
us/business/

44. • If you want to think long term, an email
newsletter is important to keep your users
updated with the latest trends in the industry
that affect them, as well as what you have
been working on recently.

45. • Make sure you don’t use the newsletter as a
hard sell or to SPAM your database.
Image Source:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/howardlake/596958243

46. Resources for nurturing your newsletter:
– http://mailchimp.com/ is a powerful
tool. They are very specific on how you
gather email addresses and unsubscribe
rates after you send out emails. They
have ample content on their website to
guide you through the best practices of
newsletters.
– http://constantcontact.com
– http://icontact.com

48. • If your startup relies on Business-to-
Business communication you will need to
use a different set of Social Media channels
such as LinkedIn and SlideShare
• LinkedIn Outreach:
–Use LinkedIn as an effective way to
identify business interested in your service
and contact decision makers within those
businesses

49. –Customize your communication with them,
don’t be generic. We get enough SPAM in
our inbox everyday and don’t need more
via LinkedIn. Be brief, show them the
value to them (not your value, but what is
in it for them), and request a meeting or
call to discuss

50. –Before you reach out to others on
LinkedIn, make sure your house is in
order:
• Properly filled Company Profile
• Take advantage of Showcase Pages
• Have your profile and the profile of those
who publicly communicate to be properly
filled and optimized
• Have regular updates

52. • Videos can be used for Product Demos,
Feature Promotion, Technical Support,...
• Resources for readily creating your
animated videos:
– goanimate.com
– powtoon.com
• We can do one-by-one video animation
review with the different teams

54.  Measuring the results of your Digital and Social
Media Activity via quantifiable KPIs
 Indicators below have been chosen in a way
that they look at the performance of the overall
digital assets and how they relate to the
business objectives.
 Overall Use Base (total)
 Mobile App Installs (total)
 Monthly Active Users (MAU)

55.  Continues…
 Number of Sessions
 Push notifications sent per month
 App Store Ratings
 App Reviews Received
 Sentiment Analysis of App Review
 Monthly website visitors (unique)
 Monthly website views (total)
 Social Media Community Size
 Social Media number of posts by brand

56. These are specific indicators to keep an eye on
to measure growth as you implement more and
more Digital and Social Media initiatives.
Mobile App Length of Session (monthly
average)
Weekly Rate of Growth of User Base
Monthly Rate of Growth of User Base
Monthly Growth Rate of Social Media
Community Size
Mobile App Positive App Reviews Received

57.  Continues…
 Mobile App Monthly Active Users (MAU)
 Mobile App Number of Upgrades
 Mobile App Retention Rate
 User Locations

58. Indicators are displayed within specific
segments to provide granular insight.
Platform App Installs
Community Size Distribution
App Store Rating per Platform
Usage by Countries

60. • Using Copyrighted Content
– Because you are a startup and you are
tight on funds, this doesn’t justify using
other people’s work without their
permission. This applies to images you
use on your website, Social Media, music
in your videos, ...
• http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234038

61. – There are stock image photos that you
can buy for the price of $10 per image
(37AED per image) and they are yours to
use across different channels:
• istockphoto.com
• shutterstock.com
• gettyimages.com

62. • Other options available to you:
– Use content with Creative Commons tags
and give reference to the source
– Email the content owner directly
requesting permission

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